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Kieta Hatsukoi japanese drama review
Completed
Kieta Hatsukoi
36 people found this review helpful
by jpny01
Dec 18, 2021
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed 4
Overall 7.5
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 5.0

It's cute but repetitive

When this started, I loved it - the characters are interesting, with Aoki having cute freakouts and Ida being this sexy clueless overserious guy, and a series of misunderstandings cause them to accidentally draw together, and not the usual way where one trips and the other catches him and they stare at each other until they turn gay.

But then it bogs down into an endless cycle of very similar breakdowns in communication that reduces the story to running in circles to prevent the couple from getting together. The problem is that the crises are all so similar that I lost all sympathy for Aoki and wanted Ida to find someone less mentally unstable, and frankly stopped caring about whether or not they'd end up together. Either way would have been equally fine to me. I was actually more invested in the straight couple, which at least had a progression in their relationship.

TBH, the avoidance of affection starts to feel homophobic - I realize this is aimed at younger audiences, but similar stories with a straight pair don't have the same pathological aversion to depicting romantic interaction.

The quality of the production is high, the dialogue is cute, the acting is excellent, and the music is fine, if not particularly notable. I can't imagine rewatching any of it, since it already feels like I watched the same episode ten times. I'd recommend it if you like cuteness, but not if you think romance should be more than holding hands for about 10 seconds.

Story: 6 - too repetitive, although the starting premise is clever and the first few episodes are really engaging.
Acting: 9 - very good all around.
Music: 7 - it's appropriate and never annoying, but there's nothing extraordinary about it.
Rewatch: 5 - I doubt I'd rewatch it, although I might want to go back and stare at Ida and listen to him speak.
Overall: 7.5 - the "suggested" rating is lower, but I don't think it deserves less than a "C". It was cute and well-done, but it's just not memorable and I'll likely forget about it fairly quickly.
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